Tangled In The Great Escape - One Shot
by Awesomeness2122
Summary: 'Promise you won't leave me. I know you're tortured within. Your eyes look hungry again but I'll never wander, my friend. Will somebody believe in this suicide? Am I the only one that thinks that you should stay alive' (Another crappy oneshot, based on the song by PTV. It doesn't have to do much with the song but yeah. Tragedy? Hurt/Comfort? Angst? Friendship? I don't know.)


**Hey guys, here's one of those crappy one shots I said I was going to post. This one is a tad bit more... crappy than the previous ones in my opinion but bleh. This one's based on Pierce the Veil's song ****_Tangled In The Great Escape._**** Since Vic didn't actually explain what the song really was about, I looked it up and most people translated it into drug addiction or just addiction in general. (The song's sung in two point of vies, by the way.) And since I haven't ever dealt or known someone with drug addiction, I thought it would be better and easier to write about addiction to self harm instead.**

And I know the cover is related to Selfish Machines and not Collide With The Sky (Tangled In The Great Escape is in that album) but I can't find anything in Collide With The Sky that could be used on this so... yeah.  
Thanks for giving this a try!  


**Disclaimer: I don't own the song (which you should listen to) and any characters.**

* * *

"Max!" I knocked loudly on her bathroom door. "Max, it's me! Open up!"

I turned to look at Iggy, "How long has she been in there?"

"About half an hour," Iggy said. "She won't talk to me or anyone else."

"Fang?" Max's voice called out from behind the bathroom door.

"Max," I said, leaning on the door. "Please let me in…"

"No."

"Max, what's wrong?" I asked. "Please…"

No reply came from the bathroom. Instead, there was a loud thud from inside the bathroom.

"Max?" Iggy asked, panic written all over his features. "Max!"

"Iggy…"

Iggy's head snapped to the side to look at me, "What?"

I pointed at the crack under the bathroom door, "Blood."

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," Iggy muttered, twisting and turning the knob.

"Iggy, call. I'm gonna deal with this," I said, shoving Iggy's phone towards him.

"Okay…" he replied, grabbing the phone from my hands.

"Max…" I whispered, leaning against the door. "Be okay…"

Iggy shot up immediately as soon as the doctor walked into the room. "Is she awake yet?"

The doctor shook his head, "She's okay, but she's not awake yet. She'll have to stay overnight."

Max's parents sighed in relief, "Can we come see her?"

"Family only," the doctor replied. As he said that, Max's whole family turned to look at me.

"I'm not family. I get it."

Max's da turned to look at the doctor, "Could you make an exception for him?"

The doctor looked at me, "Boyfriend, I suppose?"

I blushed, shaking my head 'no' quickly whie Iggy and Max's dad chuckled, "More like a best friend who hasn't grown enough balls to tell her how he really feels."

I glared at Iggy while the doctor just smiled, "I don't see why not, go ahead. You probably know where she's staying."

"Actually…" Max's dad said. "We don't. What room is it?"

The doctor shook his head, "It's room number 231."

"Thank you," Max's mom said before stalking off into the elevator with the rest of us trailing behind her.

* * *

"Fang," Max's mom said, obviously concerned. "Are you _sure_ your parents are okay with this?"

"It's no problem, Val," I smiled sadly at her. "I wanna be here when she wakes up later."

"Thank you, Fang," she smiled at me.

"I'll call if she wakes up," I said. "Or if anything else happens."

Angel tilted her head to the side, "You mean _if_ she wakes up."

"Excuse me?" Iggy asked, looking down at his little seven year old sister.

"_If _she wakes up," Angel repeated. "It's not a 'for sure' type of thing."

Everyone stared at her, "Maxie waking up, I mean."

"What do you mean?" Max's dad asked, kneeling in front of her. Angel isn't exactly your average seven year old; she was a genius. It was scary sometimes, how much she knew. Anything that comes out of her mouth should be taken extremely seriously. The first time she had said something like this, their house almost burned down in flames and so did their car.

"Nothing," she shrugged innocently. "She'll wake up _this time_ but I'm not so sure about the next." The seven year old psychic continued to walk over to the hospital bed and stood next to it, leaning down to say something to Max, "I'm sorry." And with that apology, she walked out of the room.

* * *

I ran my finger through Max's hair, "Why are you doing this to yourself, Max? You deserve a better life… I'm sorry that I wasn't there when you needed me… Please be okay. Wake up, please…"

Everyone else had left except for me and Iggy. He was downstairs in the hospital's cafeteria and had been for the past hour. I leaned back on the uncomfortable plastic chair the hospital had provided. If anything, the chair made my back hurt from sitting on it for the past eigth or so hours.

The cream colored door creaked open, "Fang?"

"What?"

Iggy sat down on the plastic chair across from where I was, "Go eat."

"What? No."

"You're starving yourself," he said.

"I'm not…"

"You've been here for at least," Iggy looked up at the clock above the television. "Nine hours without eating."

"I'm not hungry."

"I don't care," Iggy said, pointing at the door. "Eat."

I shook my head in response, "No, thanks."

"Fine then," he huffed, standing up. "We'll do this the hard way."

* * *

I poked the food on my plate with a plastic fork, "What is this stuff?"

"No one knows," a guy standing beside me said. "Can I sit here?"

"Sure."

The guy sat across from me, "This is like high school all over again. I'm Omega."

"Fang."

Omega nodded, "Cool name. Why are you here?"

"To eat?"

He chuckled, "No, you know what I mean."

"I'm here for a friend of mine," I said. "From what the doctors said, she cut too deep and she's heading off to a therapist or whatever it is a couple of weeks after she wakes up."

"Oh… Sorry to hear that."

"And yourself?"

"Well, my whole family actually," he chuckled. "I don't even know anymore. My whole family is accident prone. It's like we're cursed with bad luck or something. And today's Friday the thirteenth, something's just bound to happen."

"So… You're not cursed along with your family?"

He laughed, "Of course, I am. It's a family thing."

"And you aren't in a hospital bed and nothing's happened to you yet because…?"

"Oh, something _did_ happen. I accidentally stabbed myself, no biggie."

"What?"

"I accidentally stabbed myself a couple of times today, I'm used to it."

"So… You stab yourself accidentally on a daily basis?"

"Well…" he trailed off. "I don't mean to."

"So you do?"

"Almost every day, yeah… I guess you could say that."

"Wow. Why aren't you dead yet or something?"

"I told you, it's like some sort of curse," he said. "It tortures us and brings us to a sh*t load of near death experiences but it can't kill us."

"So, someone could push you off the Grand Canyon and you'd still be alive?"

"Well, yeah," he shuddered. "I've been through that. Broke a load of bones and all but I'm still alive."

"Wow."

"Wow indeed," he nodded. "So, I literally can't die until I really have to."

"I don't know how to respond to that."

* * *

**One month later…**

I knocked on her door, "Max? Are you in there?"

"Yeah," she called out from inside. "It's not locked, come in."

I shut the door behind me, "Do you want me to-"

"Just lock it," Max said.

I did as she said and sat down next to her on her bed, "Okay, what's wrong?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she just stared down at her wrists that were covered by her jacket sleeves, "Oh God… Max, did you?"

She nodded slowly, still not taking her eyes off her wrists, "I'm sorry."

"Why?" I pulled up her jacket sleeves gently to reveal four fresh cuts on each wrist.

"They left," she stated, pulling her sleeves back down.

"Who?"

"They're dead," she said, still looking down at her sleeves.

"Who, Max?"

"J.J and Ari," she whispered. "They're gone."

I pulled her into a hug, "What happened?"

She simply shook her head, "She sent me something." Max pointed towards an opened CD case on top of a pile of pillow. I took the CD out of the case; on the cover of the case was written '_SORRY_'.

"She killed herself… Didn't she?" Max nodded. And that was when I noticed that her eyes were red and puffy from crying. I wasn't good with crying girls. Especially girls that was or still is crying because her two best friends moved away and committed suicide.

"Max… I don't know what to do now, what should I do?"

"I'm so sorry…" she said. "I didn't know what to do… They're my best friends and they're both gone."

"Max, promise me that you won't do it…"

"I don't know if I can do that," she mumbled.

"Please… At least try, please Max…"

All I got was a muffled '_okay_' in response.

* * *

**Three months later…**

"Oh God… I thought you said you were done with it…"

"I know," she said. "I can't help it, Fang. I'm sorry…"

"Why?"

"It's just… I can't help it," she sighed. "It's an addiction; cutting or whatever you want to call it, it's like a drug. Once you've done it, you can't get enough. Cutting… I don't know how but it helps with the pain. The physical pain distracts you from the emotional or… mental pain.

It hurts, but at least it gives us another thing to focus on. If I didn't do it, I'd be dead by now… because there's nothing to distract me from suicide; from ending my whole life. I know it probably sounds weird and pathetic to you, but it's true. Most people, they don't get it. They don't get how cutting, burning, or any type of self-harm could help.

It probably doesn't make sense from an outsider's point of view how hurting yourself would help but in an unexplainable way… it does. It's not physically or mentaly healthy, I know. But it provides a temporary escape from all of this…"

"I honestly don't know what to say after that," I sighed. "But I want to let you know that I'm here for you, no matter what happens. I might not be much but I care about you, Max."

"Well, aren't you the first to say that," she said bitterly. "Everyone else don't really care. All they do is judge immediately when they see scars. I'm labeled as the 'girl with scars' or 'that ugly depressed girl' or 'the one that cuts herself'. I'm sick of it."

"Max… No matter what people say or how many scars you have or whether or not you're depressed, I still think you're beautiful and I don't ever wanna lose my best friend."

"Thank you…" she smiled at me sadly.

"You should know, Max… When you do this to yourself," I ran my fingers gently over the fresh cuts on her wrist. "You're not the only one getting hurt. Every single person that cares about you, gets hurt in the process. Me included."

"Promise me you'll never leave me?"

"I promise."

* * *

**2 weeks later…**

"_Fang! Come to the hospital, right now!_" Iggy yelled from the other line.

"It's one in the morning, what's going on?"

"_Fang… It's Max._"

"Sh*t! I'll be right there," and with that, I hung up and drove to the hospital.

"Iggy! Is she okay? What's wrong? What happened?"

"Max… She tried overdosing."

"Oh God… Is she okay?"

"She's unconscious and the doctors haven't told me anything. They're waiting for our parents but you can go in," Iggy said, gesturing to the hallways. "First door on the left."

I walked into the room, sitting down on the white uncomfortable plastic chair next to the hospital bed, "I'm sorry wasn't there, Max… I'm sorry that I left you alone… I'm sorry I let this happen… Oh God, I'm so sorry, Max…"

* * *

**2 days later…**

"She was someone special to me… She was my whole world and I made sure that she knew that. Every single day that I spent with her, from the very first day that we met, I will never ever forget. I promised her that I'd never leave her, that I'd never let her fall, that I would always be there for her and I wasn't. If you're listening right now, I'm so sorry that I let you down, Max. I shouldn't have left you that night… If I could go back, I would've stayed with you. Maxie… I know that I'm not the only who thinks that you should stay alive. I miss you already and it has only been two days. I can't imagine what my life would be from now on. The world feels different without you, Max.

She was and will always be the best thing that has ever happened to me. You're everything to me, Max and I'm so sorry I let you down." I walked off the small stage thing and sat down next to Iggy who was covering his face with his hands. Max's mom and siblings were all sobbing their hearts out whille her dad, I could clearly see, was holding back tears. When his name was called, he sighed and walked up the stage with a small piece of paper in his right hand.

I tuned him out until he opened the folded piece of paper in his hands, "You all, most of you, probably haven't been informed that we found a note in Max's room," he showed the note to the mourning crowd. "I guess you'd all know what it is; her suicide note. And instead of making this whole thing longer, I decided that I should read it out loud;

_First of all, I'm sorry for everything. I tried my best to avoid this but I just can't. I'd probably be gone when you're reading this but to my family:  
I love you and I'm sorry I had to go. I'll miss you guys, each and every one. I don't know wy I chose to do this but it just seemed right at the moment. Iggy, please stay strong for the rest. I know you could. Nudge and Ella, I know I wasn't much of a lovely sister to you guys or anyone honestly, but I love you guys. I might not show it, but I do. Gazzy, I'm sorry for not being there a lot and for being a crappy sister but like Iggy, stay strong. I know you can and you will. Angel, I'm so so sorry I won't be there to see you perform later this week and I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to say how much every single one of you mean to me. Mom and dad, I'm sorry for leaving you guys. I love you both so much. Thank you for understanding me and for trying to help. Don't take it out on yourselves because it wasn't your fault. I'll miss you guys.  
Fang, I don't know what to say. I'm sorry that I broke my promise and I'm sorry that I let you down. I'm sorry I didn't tell you how much you meant to me. Thank you for being there for me when I needed you. Thank you for being an amazing person and stepping into my life. I know I probably don't deserve you but thank you. And I'm sorry; I never meant to hurt anyone else especially you. I only meant to do this to myself. I guess this would be that 'Great Escape' I've been planning all along. The great escape from this 'labyrinth of suffering'. Please forgive me because I wouldn't be able to live with myself (well not really considering I'm dead but yeah) if you didn't. _

_And to every single person who came to my funeral, thanks for caring but you're a tad bit late. I honestly wanted to hold on, to keep living but honestly… I don't wanna wait for the down-set date because I know that I could end it all tonight. If I mean anything to any of you guys, I'm sorry but it's done._" Almost everyone was crying their eyes out when Max's dad walked back down to his seat and handed me the note.

"There's something for you there," he said.

I turned the note to read Max's messy scrawl in the middle of the page; _'Thank you so much, for everything. I love you, Fang.'_

* * *

**So that's it, tell me what you think and did you catch the song reference? I changed the lyrics a bit here and there but yeah it's from PTV's Collide With The Sky album. I added in Omega and his family just for sh*ts and giggles.**

**Thanks for reading this and check out my other story; ****_Forever Yours _****if you want.  
R&R!**


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